If you’ve ever looked at the lap times of a Spec Miata and asked yourself, “I don’t get it. They’re not fast cars. What is so special about them?” Well, see if this installment of the Yokohama Move of the Month can answer that for you, in whole or at least in part.
NASA Texas Spec Miata racer Chris Shaffer started the 2023 NASA Championships in the middle of everything. As he takes the green flag he gets passed and does some passing, but after coming all the way from his home region in Texas, he ended up racing with Vinnie Baratta and Manfredi Alliata, two NASA Texas racers he regularly races with in his home region.
“Maybe it’s because we’re comfortable and we know each other, but it was great,” Shaffer said. “I really just went to compete for the points and for the experience.
“So there’s lots of passing opportunities when you make mistakes,” he added. “I think I made one there, I dropped a wheel out of — what was it, Turn 4? — and then a couple cars went by and it was good racing.”
His approach paid off because the points he collected at the 2023 NASA Championships helped propel him to the NASA Texas Spec Miata points lead headed into the region’s last event of the season at Eagles Canyon Raceway. Shaffer went on to win the NASA Texas Spec Miata regional championship.
